(Emmetsburg)– Ethanol maker Poet wants Iowa farmers to hand over their corn cobs, and lots of them.
Three years from now, the nation’s top ethanol producer hopes to use its plant in Emmetsburg to become one of the first refiners to produce cellulosic ethanol on a large scale.
But first Poet needs to convince area farmers to devote an estimated 270-thousand acres to corn growing. Otherwise, the company won’t have enough cobs to supply its 200 million dollar Project Liberty cellulosic project.
A farmer and investor in the plant, Craig Brownlee, says that amounts to about two counties’ worth of corn.
Brownlee says there has been some skepticism about whether Poet could expand the plant by making ethanol from corn cobs and other plant cellulose.
Poet has been trying to sway the critics. Earlier this month it held what it called a “blast off” meeting attended by about 400 area farmers and agribusiness representatives.
(Story from the Associated Press.).
